Live Report and Photos by Stefano Liuzzi
After the succesful 2012 tour, celebrating the 20 years release of the first album “Always”, the dutch band The Gathering is back on the road. The last CD “Disclosure” was released on September 2012 and due to Silje Wergeland‘s pregnancy (she had a baby girl in August), only now, beginning of 2013, the promoting tour can start. The P60 is a medium sized club near Amsterdam,these are the standards now for the band, not a sold out but a full crowded venue. Over the years The Gathering gained a serious reputation, first on metal scene, now as independent rock, integrity means everything, developing music despite of the golden rules of the music business, these are the trademarks of this band and the first show in Amstelveen makes no exception,o n the setlist no “classics” like “Saturnine” , “Travel” or “Eleanor” but almost the new album and few oldies unplayed since ages. This line up (Renè Rutten-guitars, Hans Rutten – drums, Frank Boeijen – keyboards, Marjolein Kooijman – bass and backing vocals, Silje Wergeland-vocals) had the last gig one year and half ago, but everything click on the first song “Paper Waves” (the opener of “Disclosure” too) then we have one of the most bizarre of TG recent history, “Meltdown” with Frank singing and the beautiful trumpet of Noel Hofman to add colors to this 8 minutes track. With “Green Ocean Road” even the sleepy Dutch audience got involved on this musical trip, then “Heroes for Ghosts” ,11 minutes track that had the premiere live 2 years ago on the same venue. When there’s big change in the line up of a band, then everything could collapse…this is not the case of TG.. “Heroes” is the highlights of Silje’s work so far, she never tried to fill Anneke’s shoes or tried to radically change the image and the philosophy of the band, we have to give her some serious credit for that.
Now it’s a Silje’s thing. “Shot to Pieces” is “the moment” for me: good old song, rarely performed..sometimes TG released album or songs not completely understood at that time..now-2013-the lyrics of STP are quite ironic…from “The West Pole” we have “All You Are” and “No Bird Call”…then “Souvenirs” and “Broken Glass”, another new entry from the previous tour with Silje. “In Motion part 1” after 18 years is still the “sing along song” on the setlist.
Is it possible to end a show without playing “TG old classics”? Yes, because “Gemini 1” and “I Can See Four Miles After Only One Night” became classics,you got the same feeling watching Pink Floyd footage from Pompei 1972!
After 80 minutes the show is over, not the longest TG setlist ever, but the audience is fully satisfied, there’s time for meet and greet, photos with fans coming from Mexico, Russia, Usa , France and Italy. The band confirmed the release next spring of “Afterlights” on CD with new songs (originally,this was a limited 4 tracks EP sold with “Disclosure” on TG webshop).
More shows are scheduled this winter in NL, for the Euro tour we’ll have to wait longer, be sure to get a ticket! The Gathering 2013 is alive and well!
Setlist
- Paper Waves
- Meltdown
- Great Ocean Road
- Heroes for Ghosts
- Shot to Pieces
- All You Are
- Broken Glass
- Souvenirs
- Gemini I
- In Motion #1
- No Bird Call
- I Can See Four Miles (Encore)
Links
MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Site
And now watch some nice pics from the show here below in the gallery!
